One-piece bracket.



L. A. BUFPINGER & D. ROBERTSON.

' ONE PIECE BRACKET.

APPLICATION FILED JAN.27, 1912.

Patented Aug. 27, 1912.

LEWIS A. B-UFFINGER, on NEW YORK, n. Y., AND DAVID increases, ormention, NEW JERSEY.

ONE-PIECE BRACKET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 2'7, 1%12.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that we, LEWIS A. Burrm GER, a citizen of the United States,and resident of the borough of Brooklyn, city, county, and State of NewYork, and DAVID ltonnirrson, a. citizen of the United States, andresident of Boonton, county of Morris, and State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in One- Picce Brackets, ofwhich the Iollowing is a specification,

Our invention relates to a seat and stiffener, or bracket, forsupporting and securing the horizontal members of structural iron workand the like to the vertical members.

Heretofore the beams and girders in structural iron work have beensecured to the columns and the like by the use of angleiron seats towhich were riveted angle-iron stiffener-s, and in cases where thestiffener extended below the vertical leg of the angleiron seat a fillerplate was inserted between the projecting lower portion of the stiffenerand the column. This construction, however, involves numerousdisadvantages, such as the difficulty of obtaining proper engagement ofthe stiffener with the horizontal ortion of the seat, the necessity ofusing rlvets of considerable length so as to pass through the threethicknesses of metal formed by the flanges of the column, seat or fillerand stiffener flange, and the amount of work required in assembling andjoining the parts together during the building construction.

In our application filed August 12th, 1911, Serial No. 643,718, we haveshown and described a combined seat and stiffener formed of one integralpiece of sheet metal folded in such way as to provide the seat,stiffener and base flanges.

Our present invention relates to an improvement in the combined seat andstilfener shown "in said prior application, among the objects of ourinvention being to provide a bracket of improved design, whereby thesame strength is secured with less metal and the interference of thebracket with the terra cotta work, or the like, in the buildingconstruction is reduced. I

The invention can be illustrated with reference to the joining of theI-beams and the like to columns and accordingly we have shown in theaccompanying drawing an no loss of metal occurs.

embodiment of the invention utilized inconnection with these members.

In said drawing Figure 1 is a plan view of the sheet metal from whichthe blanks are formed. Fi 2 is a similar view of a single blank. Fig. 3is a perspective of the completed bracket. Fig. 4 is a top plan view ofthe same. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the bracket riveted in placesecuring an I-beam to a column.

Referrin more specifically to the drawings 10 indicates the sheet metalfrom which the blanks 11. are to be formed as by stamping, punching orthe like. It will be observed that the blanks are formed with'narrowends 12 and wider ends the latter being slitted on the lines 14 to formtongues 15. The sheet metal iscut up into blanks on the lines 16 and 17with the narrow and wide ends of the blank alternating so that The rivetholes 18 and 19 may be punched at the same time with the formation ofthe blanks for simplifying the construction of the bracket.

Having obtained the blank as illustrated in Fig. 2 it is then foldedupon itself along the medial line 20 to form the double Wall stiflenerrib 21, and then the lateral portions are folded forward upon theconverging folding lines 22 to form the side flanges 23, which are in asingle plane at a right angle to the stiffener rib 21. Each of thetongues 15 is then folded upon the folding line 24 into a plane at aright angle to the portion of the stiffener rib or side flange fromwhich it projects. the inner tongues 15 projecting from the stiffenerrib being folded away from each other, and the outer tongues 15projecting from the side flanges being folded forward so that the innerand outer tongues are superposed one upon the other at each side to formthe seat portion to receive the I-beam or the like.

It should be noted that the rivet holes in the tongues must be solocated as to register with each other when the tongues are superposedso that the rivet fastened throu h binds the tongues together andrevents the movement of one tongue relatively to the other.

Referring to Fig. 5 it will be seen that the bracket may be secured to acolumn 25 by the rivets 26 and an I-beam 27 resting upon the seatportion of the bracket may be secured thereto by rivets 28. The rivets26 pass through but two thicknesses of metal so that they are materiallyshorter and stronger than is possible in the use of the three piece seatand stifiener construction commonly employed in building constructiontoday. The rivet 28 binding together the tongue of the stiffener rib andthe tongue of the side flange at each side insures the transmission ofthe downward strains which tend to bend the tongues, directly into thestiflener rib side flange and the column, as no relative motion isossible between the superposed tongues w ich form the seat portion. Itis also apparent that the base flange ofthe I-beam being rivet-ed toeach of the lateral pairs of tongues prevents any tendency which theload may have to separate them laterallyf The effect of folding sideflanges 23 forwardly upon converging lines 22 results in the ideal formof the stiffener rib 21 as the latter is widest and consequentlystrongest at the upper portion and tapers gradually toward the lowerportion so that as the strain is carried into each rivet from the toptoward the bottom the strength required to carry the load is satisfledand yet no unnecessary metal is present. In addition to saving metalwith consequent decrease in expense and weight this form of stifienerrib 21 reduces the difliculty in the subsequent terra cottawork, or

the like, which is frequently interfered with by projecting parts in theframework of the structure.

What we claim is: r l. A one piece bracket comprising integral .medialdouble walled sheet metal stiffener folding line to form a medial doublewalled 2 stiffener rib, the lateral portions of the blank being broughtforward'on converging folding lines into a plane at right angle to saidstiffener rib, to taper the stiflenerfrib and form side flanges,and:the'upper portion of the blank being separated on lines correspondingwith said folding lines to form in ner and outer'tongues, the inner andouter tongues at each side being folded downwardly on lines at rightangles to each other, and superposed one upon the other.

LEWIS A. BUFFINGER. DAVID ROBERTSON.

Witnesses: V

. OcTAvrUsKmeHT, M. G; Onawronn.

